CANADA
Top Canadian designers present White Cashmere Collection 2009
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In November 2009, Tissue World reported on an Lily’s collection
of wedding dresses. This elicited a response from Canada, where 15 top fashion
designers from across the country graced the runway with their vision of a
future without breast cancer at the Sixth Annual White Cashmere Collection
2009: Fashion with Compassion in Toronto on 23 September (see photos).
“A unique celebration of style with substance, the world-leading White
Cashmere Collection is crafted entirely in 100% pure, soft and
luxurious sheets of Cashmere Bathroom Tissue, Canada’s best-selling
brand,” the accompanying press release states.” The Cashmere BT (bathroom
tissue) Couture collection also heralds the return of limitededition Pink
Cashmere, a fund- and awarenessraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation,
with twenty-five cents from the sale of every package of Pink going directly
to the Foundation.”
Kruger Products is Canada’s leading tissue manufacturer, with brands such
as Cashmere, Purex, SpongeTowels, Scotties and White Swan, as well as away-from-home
products for industrial and commercial use across Canada. Kruger operates
facilities in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland and
Labrador, in the United States and the United Kingdom and has 9,000 employees.
For more information, see www.Cashmere.ca . |
USA
Blue Heron files for bankruptcy protection
Newsprint and tissue producer Blue Heron Paper Co announced on 31 December
that it has filed for bankruptcy protection in Portland, Oregon, in order to
reorganize and restructure the company.
"I am sorry for the disruption this will cause our creditors, suppliers
and particularly our employees, but there appears to be no other choice for
the company," stated CEO Mike Siebers.
The mill in Oregon City has total capacity of 244,000 tons/yr of mostly recycled-content
newsprint, groundwood papers and tissue. The company said it has worked diligently
for the past 18-24 months to improve its performance "in the most difficult
of market conditions" and has restructured certain obligations and sought
additional financing, "but demand and pricing for some products has continued
to suffer while costs overall remain high, and financial markets seem to be
closed to small companies like ours that work on Main Street," Siebers
added.
Blue Heron hopes to avoid downtime associated with the bankruptcy filing which
would be "devastating to our business and future," Siebers said. The
employee-owned company laid off 10% of its workforce in July 2009 and now employs
216 workers.
Last year the mill converted one of three paper machines to produce Green
Seal-approved commercial/industrial toweling in order to diversify its business.
News from RISI(www.risiinfo.com)
Robert A McDonald elected Chairman of P&G
Robert McDonald,
new P&G Chairman
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AG Lafley, chairman of the board, will retire
from Procter & Gamble
effective 25 February 2010. He stepped out of his role as chairman
on 1 January. Robert A McDonald, currently president and chief executive
officer, has been elected chairman of the board, in addition
to his other responsibilities , effective 1
January 2010.
Since becoming president and chief executive officer in June 2000, Lafley
has refocused P&G on consumer-driven innovation and consistent, reliable
sustainable growth, the company says in a press statement. “The company has
more than doubled sales since the beginning of the decade, and has grown
its portfolio of billion-dollar brands - brands that generate at least $1
billion in annual sales - from 10 to 22. On average, annual organic sales
have grown 5%, core earnings-per-share have grown 12% a year, and free cash
flow productivity has been 112% a year since 2001. The Company's market capitalization
has more than doubled - making P&G one of the five most valuable companies
in the U.S. and among the 10 most valuable companies in the world.”
Lafley was succeeded as chief executive officer by Robert A McDonald on
1 July 2009. He has continued to serve as chairman of the board to support
the management transition, a practice that P&G has followed during multiple
management changes over decades. |
Cellu Tissue plans $125 million IPO
In a $14 million project, Cellu Tissue plans a new converting facility in
Oklahoma City, OK, that would be the company's second converting plant in the
southern USA.
Cellu Tissue, North America's seventh largest tissue papermaker by capacity,
signed a non-binding letter of intent to lease a 32,000 m2 facility in Oklahoma
City to house the tissue products converting operation, which would run by
next June, based on an SEC filing. The company also recently added or is
in the process of adding converting equipment at two of its three other converting
facilities in Central Islip, Long Island, NY, and Thomaston, GA. In all,
the company wants to further integrate tissue paper capacity to its converting
lines while also growing private label share.
Cellu Tissue, which plans a $125 million initial public offering (IPO) and
issued a prospectus on the IPO on Tuesday, increased private label sales
from 11% of fiscal 2008 revenue to an almost 30% share in the six-month period
through Aug. 27. The IPO is aimed at reducing debt . News from RISI(www.risiinfo.com)
G-P announces closures at two operations
Georgia-Pacific has announced that it is shutting a tissue machine and five
converting lines at its Day Street mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and another
tissue machines at its Wauna mill in Oregon.About 150 jobs out of 600 will
be permanently lost in Wisconsin, where the closure is said to be permanent.
In Oregon, the machine has been mothballed, leading to the loss of 15 jobs.
In
Green Bay, it appears the closures have nothing to do with the state of the
economy. GP has invested in the mill over recent years and the plant to be
shut is outdated and no longer economic.In Oregon, orders are inadequate to
keep all the mill’s machines operating. PM 2, which is to be shut has a capacity
of over 50,000 tons/yr, close to 20% of the mill’s total tonnage.
Meanwhile, a fire at the Day Street mill last week caused millions of dollars
of damage, according to the local fire department.
Stonehill starts up new converting plant
On 7 December, Stonehill Financial LLC, a USbased distressed debt and advisory
firm, announced the acquisition and start of operations of its wholly-owned
affiliate, Stonehill Converting LLC, a manufacturer of retail and AfH tissue
case products. The plant operates in a modern 18,000 m2 building in De Pere,
Wisconsin, near Green Bay.
Ten converting lines are dedicated to the production of a comprehensive line
of tissue paper products including bath, towel, napkin, and facial products.
Each of these products can be made to meet a wide range of customer specifications
for paper characteristics, size, sheet count, and packaging configurations,
the company says.
Current capacity of the facility is about 200,000 cases per month. Significant
additional production equipment has been installed and the facility will accommodate
future planned expansions. Stonehill says it hopes to work with local, state
and federal governments to pursue acquisitions of additional converting equipment
and tissue related businesses. At full production, Stonehill Converting anticipates
hiring upwards of 130 employees from the extensive pool of experienced paper
and converting industry personnel in Green Bay and Fox Valley.
Stonehill Financial is based in Minnesota. It has offices in Massachusetts
and Arizona and is actively engaged in two primary business segments. In its
Special Situation Finance segment, it originates and manages special situation
loans to companies and purchases private company debt from creditors who, for
any number of reasons, wish to sell their credit facilities. In its Restructuring & Turnaround
Practice, Stonehill Financial is engaged by financial institutions or directly
by corporations to analyze, advise, implement, and often provides executive
leadership for business operations experiencing significant distress or in transition.
Kadant receives order for stock prep
On 23 December 2009, Kadant Lamort SAS, a subsidiary of Kadant Inc, USA, received
a repeat order for its compact stock preparation system from a major South America-based
tissue producer for installation at its plant in Mexico. The new system has
a capacity of 220 tons/day and includes pulping, screening, and cleaning equipment.
“The past performance of our stock preparation systems in tissue mills and
Kadant’s turnkey capabilities provided strong justification for the purchase
of a fourth Kadant system. Our emphasis on cost-effective solutions makes the
compact stock preparation system concept appealing to many of our customers,”
said Alain Serres, president of Kadant Lamort.
The design of Kadant’s compact stock preparation system is configured to efficiently
remove stickies and other contaminants from the recovered RCF raw material.
The highconsistency pulper is fitted with an energyefficient turbine while maximized
deflaking and ink removal processes allow for reduced pulping time and improved
output quality. The new system is expected to start up in August 2010.
Kadant’s compact stock preparation system is fitted with an energy efficient
Helisoft turbine that is able to operate at a consistency up to 20%. The increased
deflaking energy and an optimized ink micronisation allow for reduced pulping
time and improved output quality. Coarse screening is directly attached to the
HD-pulping device for removing contaminants early in the process and is fitted
with 4 mm holes. This concept permits pre-screening using only one machine rather
than three or four, as is the conventional design. The compact screening concept
also uses Kadant’s ScreenONE™ system with three stages.
